Last Saturday I attended a street photography workshop at Photography Course London. The practical part of the day took place at Spitalfields, one of the places to be in London on a Saturday. We were asked to pick a theme and I started off with couples

I began quite well taking a wide view of what might constitute a couple - could be either friends, lovers or friends of the four legged variety.

Then I got kind of distracted by things or people I just found interesting

not normally a huge fan of back an white but this lady came already colour co-ordinated making it a no brainer!

I was also hugely attracted by people who were dressed slightly unusually or doing something out of the ordinary and really couldn't resist these fabulous ladies

or these guys

But back to the challenge, couples! A bit later I saw some different couples some of whose members were canine, like this pampered pooch here who travelled her own cushion.

But this was my absolute favourite couple

That's all folks, join me back in Italy next time!

No sooner back from Call of the Wild Soul than I was off on another workshop, this time in London, with the wonderful Kat Sloma. You can find out more about Kat here.

This workshop ‘A sense of place’ based on Kats successful e-course took place in Hampstead for the classroom session, followed by a photo safari in the Spitalfields / Brick Lane area of East London. The course also took place on my 39th wedding anniversary but I was given dispensation by my husband on the basis that I let him go to a Grateful Dead concert on our anniversary in 1981 (I didn’t like the Dead at the time I do rather now!)

Having introduced ourselves it turned out to be a small world. I already had a connection with Justine through a photography based Facebook group I belong to, and it transpired that Kat and Fiona had met some of my fellow Wild Souls at an art retreat in Yorkshire last year where Flora Bowley was also teaching. It was also great to meet the other group members Alyssa & Becs.

The morning was spent looking through the workbook and thinking about what a sense of place means to us individually. The time raced by and after lunch it we headed over to the East End for the photo safari.

I have made a couple of trips to the Spitalfields / Brick lane area recently (here is a really good art supply warehouse there) and taken quite a few photos. There is always something different to see, however, and I had previously only been on a weekday when it’s rather quiet with no food stalls or pop up markets. Also it was really interesting to notice what my companions noticed / were attracted to that I wasn’t and vice versa. All the picture in the post were taken on that Saturday I haven’t included any that were taken on my previous visits.

The first thing that caught my eye was this old fashioned looking that seemed to be in its own private time zone

Next I was attracted to this window with its colourful lamps

Then we were into the main drag of Brick Lane itself full of sounds smells and colour. I wished we hadn't just had lunch, the food looked and smelled wonderful!

Some of the restaurants had very interesting decor!

Another feature of the lane was the fascinating graffiti which was everywhere - I rather liked this one which was more of a collage - is that Patrick Moore in the centre?

I also really liked this sign in a book shop window

Finally as we were heading back I was struck with the wonderful colours of this display of shoes

the whole day was fab - many thanks to Kat and my fellow photographers

Saturday at Spitalfields

A Sense of Place